


Twin Flames

by marchstarling



Category: Loveless
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-30
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:01:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24993505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marchstarling/pseuds/marchstarling
Summary: Soubi and Nisei are left in stasis as Seimei plots his next move. What do a bird and a dog have to talk about when the human is away?
Relationships: Agatsuma Soubi & Akame Nisei
Comments: 3
Kudos: 6





	Twin Flames

Nisei sniffles, pulling up clumps of grass to toss into the wind. He feels gross, skin raw and red from being battered about like a toy. The paisley couches of their safe-house smell like old-woman, and he had refused point-blank to lick his wounds in there, seeking out the cool grass of the garden instead. He stretches out, trying to get comfortable, wincing as a rock pinches at his back. It's less than hospitable. 

“Fucking worthless.” He sits up on his haunches. “Speaking of--why are you out here?” 

The orange-tip of Agatsuma’s cigarette on the porch is ticking him off. 

“You might as well call me by my name. We’re one and the same, after all.” 

“I think not. Haven’t we covered this? You’re light; I’m dark. I have _the_ name; you have nothing.” The victory is cold and water-logged. Nisei had been the one on his back, after all, Soubi a pillar of white as Moonless folded and the battleground turned back into regular old concrete. 

Soubi doesn’t even move. Just keeps looking up at the sky while sucking in nicotine, like the sky has any answers. 

“Are you not even gonna fight? You irritate me.” 

“Likewise.” 

“One-word answers, huh? Like that makes you cool.” Nisei yanks himself to his feet, plodding over to the porch. He settles against one of the wooden arches. “Hey, let me have a cigarette.” 

Soubi tosses him a lighter and a near-empty package of death sticks. Nisei sets one burning and shoves it into the corner of his mouth. He inhales. The dumb thing makes him hack. 

“It takes a few tries.” Soubi says, ash falling off his tongue. 

“To not care, you mean?” Nisei watches their twin flames in the darkness. He can breath out fire, now. That’s pretty cool. “No matter how you sell it, you’re still killing yourself on these things. Breathing easy through it doesn’t mean much.” 

“You might be right about that.” He doesn’t sound bothered at all. 

“Where’s the guy who broke my finger, huh? I want him back.” Nisei mutters. What is he supposed to do with this sad lump at his side? Fights aren’t fun if the opponent isn’t trying. 

“Get used to disappointment.” 

The way he talks is so blunt. For all the times classmates scolded Nisei for his coldness, Soubi must have been scolded twice as much. It makes Nisei lighter, knowing that the people in Soubi’s life must be annoyed at him constantly. Well, the people who were in his life. His life is Seimei, now. Again. It always comes back to Seimei. Seimei even had Soubi hum a little tune to it. Nothing says ‘there is nothing else but you’ like ‘I give you everything, down to every last strand of hair, every last drop of blood…’ 

“Poetic.” Nisei says, kicking at the dirt. 

Soubi huffs out a toxic cloud. “What is?” 

“Hey, what’d Seimei tell you? I’m curious. He was so sweet in the beginning, with his promises.” Nisei catches Soubi’s eye, smirking. “What did Agatsuma Soubi want to hear more than anything?” 

“None of your business. You’d just use it to win his favor.” 

“Well, yeah.” Nisei says. “Doesn’t mean I don’t wanna know just for the sake of knowing. It’s something more interesting to contemplate than the paisley, isn’t it? Or why grandmas always make it boil inside.” 

“You could contemplate nature, instead of bothering me.” 

“Nature is--” Seimei smiling at him, teaching him how to push a two-person boat to shore. It’s arriving on that shore, breathless, wishing they could have stayed out on the water forever instead. That they had frozen together in their shared boat, before Seimei had cause to betray him. Because he would. He did. “--not something to share with you. Besides, what’s with the way you’re all turned up for the sky? Are you thinking about that Ritsuka, hoping he’s looking at the same stars?” 

“Don’t talk about him.” 

“Despite the fact that you don’t raise your voice… your sore spots are as obvious as his. It’s embarrassing. There’s Seimei, of course, but Seimei is everybody’s sore spot. Now this Ritsuka is one of yours? He’s made you soft. That won’t work if you’re gonna last here. Better harden back up.” 

Seimei had cut the baby fat off Nisei real quick. Seeing Soubi grow it back is gross, kind of alarming, but he can use that if Seimei doesn’t attack it first.

“...Whatever.” 

“Whatever, whatever! Jeez. You know, I hope your Ritsuka comes. I hope he shows up and takes you away for good, and I never have to see you again.” Nisei sucks down another hit of smoke, hanging onto the cigarette with angry, grasping fingers. 

Beside him, Soubi stubs out his flame. “I’ll make this easier for you: you win. Between you and I, you’re more Beloved.” He tosses his death stick away--did his Ritsuka tell him to cut back?--and goes inside where the warmth is, leaving Nisei out in the dirt and cold. 

Furiously, eyes shut tight, Nisei echos his namesake: Then why does it feel like I lost?


End file.
